How is the MPIWG organized?

The Institute comprises three departments, each administered by a Director, and (as of 2008) five Max Planck Research Groups, each under the direction of an outstanding junior scholar. Department I, directed by Jürgen Renn, focuses on structural changes in systems of knowledge, Department II, directed by Lorraine Daston, investigates the history of the ideals and practices of rationality, and Department III, directed by Hans-Jörg Rheinberger, studies experimental systems and spaces of knowledge. The Max Planck Research Group,led by Veronika Lipphardt, investigates the historicization of knowledge about human biological diversity in the 20th century. The Max Planck Research Group, led by Sven Dupré, investigates how artists invented and appropriated knowledge, conceived and categorized knowledge, and transmitted and circulated knowledge in the visual and decorative arts in the pre-modern period. The Max Planck Research Group, led by Vincenzo de Risi, analyzes modern geometry and the concept of space. The Max Planck Research Group, led by Sabine Arnaud, traces the writing and illustration of deaf-muteness from the early 17th century to the late 19th century in Europe and the United States. Go to department pages

How do the departments and groups work?

Each of the departments and research groups sets its research agenda and develops and cultivates its own working style. Despite the diversity of themes and projects there are important overlaps between the groups’ research interests. Department I and Research Group I, for example, share an interest in the history of science and technology in China; Departments II and III have common interests in the history of scientific observations and the ways in which observations are registered. All research units take the historicity of scientific knowledge as a fundamental premise and seek new ways of characterizing and understanding it.

How is our research organized?

All research units are developing electronic research environments for historical work on science and knowledge on the basis of tools developed by the Information Technology Group. The MPIWG participates in collaborative research projects with other research institutes, universities, and museums all over the world, and with other Max Planck Institutes.